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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26405623">Downtime</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Frost/pseuds/Lady_of_Frost'>Lady_of_Frost</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:40:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,770</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26405623</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Frost/pseuds/Lady_of_Frost</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You finally get another movie night with Bucky.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Downtime</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So which one did you want to watch?” you ask.<br/>Bucky blows out a breath and keeps sifting through the stack of movies in his hands, “There’s so many choices.”<br/>The rain continues to fall against your windows as you both sit on your bedroom floor and struggle to find something to watch. <br/>“Why don’t you just pick something out, Doll?” Bucky asks.<br/>“Oh no you don’t,” you begin pointing a finger at him, “You get to pick this time.”<br/>Bucky shakes his head and stares at your DVDs, “I don’t even know what I’m looking at with most of these,” he says with his brows furrowed.<br/>You look him over, “These are my personal collection, Buck, so I’ve seen every one of them, so just find something that seems interesting,” you say with a shrug.<br/>Bucky wets his lips and then bites down on his bottom lip in concentration.<br/>Your eyes focus on his mouth for far too long as his focus is on the colorful covers of the DVD cases. And when you see him suck in a breath more than you hear it, you focus on his eyes again.<br/>He’s frustrated.<br/>“Is there any kind of content you don’t want to see to help narrow it down?” you ask.<br/>He meets your gaze, “What do you mean?”<br/>“Like things you couldn’t stomach to watch, lots of people have difficulty watching things like war movies or even animal deaths, namely dogs,” you explain.<br/>“They kill animals in movies?” Bucky asks quietly his eyes going wide.<br/>“No, not actually of course, the animal actors are fine,” you assure him quickly, “But sometimes the sight or implied death upsets people.”<br/>Bucky nods, “I don’t want to watch anything like that where a dog dies.”<br/>You purse your lips and reach forwards and gently pull the movie “Old Yeller” out of the stack in Bucky’s hands. <br/>He watches you set it aside his eyes following it, “No,” he whispers sadly.<br/>“That movie has scarred many children,” you say.<br/>Bucky continues his search thumbing through the pile until he stops.<br/>“Is Pacific Rim a war movie?” he asks turning it over and frowning at the back cover.<br/>Your eyes light up, “Yes and no, it’s a Kaiju movie.”<br/>“Kaiju?” he asks.<br/>“Have you seen Godzilla yet?” you ask.<br/>Bucky’s eyes widen, “Yes, I have!” he exclaims pointing at you, “Sam and I watched a whole marathon of Godzilla movies after he made a reference when we fought a mutant crocodile…that I obviously didn’t get.”<br/>You let out a laugh.<br/>You remember hearing about the mutant crocodile.<br/>It had dragged Bucky into the water by his metal arm and he had managed to wrestle himself free. Both men had felt bad for the creature because it had been half-starved and experimented on. With some difficulty they had managed to trap it and bring it back to Banner so he could undo the effects of the Gamma radiation on it. The crocodile Godzilla is now a permanent resident at a rehabilitation center.<br/>“Is Godzilla in this too?” Bucky asks staring at the cover.<br/>“No,” you say taking the DVD from him, “But there are plenty of other giant monsters And they fight giant robots.”<br/>“That sounds badass,” Bucky says.<br/>“It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s one of my comfort movies,” you say.<br/>“That one, definitely that one,” Bucky insists.<br/>You make popcorn and put the DVD in and curl up on your couch under a blanket next to Bucky. You forget there were a couple of scenes that might be triggering to Bucky and you glance over at him studying his reaction to make sure he’s alright.<br/>He seems utterly engrossed in the movie and really enjoys the fight scenes and even makes multiple comments while clenching his metal fist in the air, a huge smile spread across his face. For the more emotional scenes that you worry might upset him, you rub your hand along his knee comfortingly. And at one point he wraps his right arm around your shoulder and you snuggle closer to him. <br/>The movie ends and your arm is now draped over his middle while his metal arm absentmindedly strokes your forearm. <br/>You’re reluctant to pull away from him.<br/>Not only because he’s exceptionally warm on a cool day like today, but you also have a major crush on the super soldier. <br/>He leans his head against yours as you watch the credits roll.<br/>Your heart rate speeds up again for not the first time tonight.<br/>“That was a really good movie,” he says against your hair.<br/>“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” you say pulling away slightly to stare up at him.<br/>He smiles at you and you feel like your heart is going to burst.<br/>And then there’s a large clap of thunder and the tv flickers as you lose power for a second. The DVD player then begins the process of trying to load the DVD again.<br/>“It’s alright, I got you, Doll,” Bucky soothes as he rubs both of your arms.<br/>You settle against him, “Did you want to watch another movie or?”<br/>“We can if you want,” Bucky says staring down at you.<br/>“Okay,” you say leaning back slightly and almost out of his arms. <br/>He loosens his grip, but still keeps his arms around you.<br/>You shouldn’t be getting this close to your teammate, if things go badly…<br/>Besides, you don’t even know if he likes you in that way, you could end up ruining your newfound friendship by assuming things. <br/>You pull away more and he lets go.<br/>You can’t think with him touching you like this.<br/>You reach out for a handful of popcorn and crunch down on it and bite into a kernel accidentally. You whimper and spit it out into the bowl and feel around your teeth with your tongue.<br/>“You okay?” Bucky asks sitting up and placing a hand on your back.<br/>“Yeah,” you mutter massaging your lower, left jaw gingerly with your fingers, “I just bit down on a kernel.”<br/>You look over at Bucky and he nods.<br/>You run your tongue over your tooth again, “I think my implant is okay though,” you say.<br/>“Your what?” Bucky asks.<br/>“My dental implant,” you say.<br/>Bucky blinks and stares at you confused, “Wait, you have-“<br/>“An artificial tooth? Yeah,” you interject.<br/>Bucky’s brows raise and he smiles.<br/>You shrug your shoulders, “What?”<br/>“I didn’t know that,” he says.<br/>“I haven’t told you?” you ask.<br/>He shakes his head.<br/>“Well, I have a fake tooth, Bucky,” you say.<br/>“Which one is it?” he asks leaning forwards. <br/>You pull down your lower lip with your finger and point at one of your lower, left incisors. <br/>“It looks real,” he states in amazement.<br/>“Look closer,” you mumble, “See the difference?”<br/>He tilts his head back and forth getting a better angle, “Oh yeah I can, still that’s pretty cool. God, science is amazing,” he says smiling.<br/>“Technology right?” you ask.<br/>“It’s come so far since the forties,” he says shaking his head and staring forward, “Like movies, there are so many amazing details and colors and the music and…” he sighs happily.<br/>You giggle, genuinely enjoying watching him marvel at all the things he’s missed after being the Winter Soldier for so long.<br/>“How did you lose it? If you don’t mind me asking that is?” Bucky asks.<br/>“I got kicked in the jaw and fell down a staircase,” you explain.<br/>Bucky winces, “Ouch, sorry.”<br/>“It’s okay, you’re not the one who kicked me down the stairs,” you joke.<br/>“Do you want to see my arm?” he asks.<br/>You stare at him in surprise, “Yeah, if you’re okay with?”<br/>Bucky nods and holds out his left arm, “It’s only fair after you showed me yours.”<br/>You reach your hands out to touch his arm, you’ve wanted a closer look at it for a while now actually.<br/>“A tooth is hardly an entire arm, Buck,” you say softly as you gently take his hand in yours and examine it closely.<br/>Carefully turning his hand over, you watch the plates shift with the movement and listen to the subtle noises it makes.<br/>“God, science is amazing,” you echo his earlier statement.<br/>Bucky lets out a chuckle.<br/>“If you need me to stop let me know,” you say glancing up at him.<br/>“I will,” he says softly.<br/>You run your fingertips up his forearm, tracing the plates slowly up to where the fabric of his shirt meets his elbow. <br/>Bucky huffs a little.<br/>“What? Do you need me to stop?” you ask halting your movements.<br/>“No, it just tingles is all,” Bucky says.<br/>“You can feel that?” you ask.<br/>He nods, “It’s…different than my right one, but I can definitely feel, there are a lot of artificial nerve endings for things like pressure sensitivity, coordination, at least that’s how it was explained to me. There’s some pain receptors too but only in places where severe structural damage might happen.”<br/>You trail your fingers down his arm and into his palm and his fingers close slowly to encapsulate yours.<br/>“The best way I could think to describe it is like…when you can feel the shifting of gravel beneath a boot,” Bucky continues.<br/>“But it won’t fall asleep?” you ask.<br/>Bucky laughs, “No, it won’t.”<br/>You don’t know what possesses you to do it, maybe it’s how close he is to you, maybe it’s the fact that you’re now holding his hand, or maybe it’s the light reflected in his eyes. But you lift his metal hand in both of yours as he instinctively uncurls his fingers and you place a warm kiss to the inside of his palm.<br/>“Did you feel that?” you ask softly staring up at him.<br/>His breathing picks up, “I did, Doll.”<br/>He removes his hand from yours and lifts it to your face, his metal thumb trailing over your bottom lip as he licks his own. Bucky leans closer and a bright flash illuminates the room and is promptly followed by a huge thunderclap that rumbles through the building and you yelp and startle in his grasp. <br/>You glance over at the windows as the thunder continues to roll across the sky.<br/>“Shh, hey I got you, I got you,” Bucky soothes pulling you closer to him.<br/>He wraps an arm around you again and pulls the blanket over you both.<br/>“Why don’t we watch another movie, yeah?” Bucky asks.<br/>“Yeah,” you agree and settle back onto the couch as he stands to pick out another DVD.</p>
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